Resource Review – Savology

Resource Review – Savology Financial Wellness Platform

Looking for a way to deliver financial wellness and basic planning support at scale – without adding more work to your practice?

I recently sat down with Brock Klementson for a behind-the-scenes walkthrough of the Savology Financial Wellness Platform, a client-led financial wellness solution designed for advisors who work with retirement plans, middle-market clients, and prospects who aren’t quite ready for full-service planning.

Savology allows advisors to offer an accessible planning experience to employees and individuals, while still keeping the advisor in control of branding, education, and next-step conversations. In this interview, Brock walks through the platform from the end-user perspective and explains how advisors are using it as a financial wellness benefit, a prospecting tool, and a way to support younger or middle-market clients.

You can watch the video interview below, and the full transcript follows.

NOTE: the screencap walkthrough of the platform starts at the 3 minute mark…

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Sharon:Hey everyone, Sharon here, founder of 401kbestpractices.com, where I share proven strategies to help advisors grow a successful practice.

Today, I’m sitting down with Brock Klementson for a behind-the-scenes demo of the Savology Financial Wellness Platform. We’ll walk through what it is, how it works, and why advisors may want to consider using it in their practice.

Brock, thanks for joining me today.

Brock:Thanks for having me, Sharon. I’m excited to be here.

Sharon:Let’s start with the basics. What is Savology? And by the way, I love the name.

Brock:Savology is a client-led financial planning and financial wellness solution that advisors can offer to middle-market and mass-affluent clients at scale, without adding more work.

The main use cases are retirement plan advisors offering it as a financial wellness benefit to their 401k plans, subscription-style planning for middle-market clients, and prospecting. It allows advisors to help people who may not meet minimums today, but still need guidance, while keeping the experience largely hands-off for the advisor.

Sharon:Do you see certain types of advisors using it more than others?

Brock:Yes, retirement plan advisors are using it heavily as a wellness benefit for plan participants. They roll it out to all employees and use engagement reports to show employers the value being delivered.

It can also be used as a sales and prospecting tool. Advisors can identify individuals based on demographics, income, assets, age, or other criteria and use that data to drive more meaningful conversations.

Sharon:I’d love to see what this looks like behind the scenes. Can you walk us through it?

Brock:Absolutely. I’ll start with the client experience. When someone creates an account, they go through a short initial survey that takes about six minutes on average.

The survey asks basic questions about age, family status, income, savings, assets, liabilities, insurance, estate planning, health, and retirement goals. There’s no sensitive personal information collected, and everything starts as estimates.

Once that’s completed, the platform generates three key deliverables: a financial report card, an action item center, and a financial plan.

Sharon:Tell me more about the report card.

Brock:The report card gives users an overall financial health grade and grades for each category of their finances. There’s also a social comparison tool so they can see how they stack up against peers.

Users can click into any section to see why they received a certain grade and what they can do to improve it. Advisors can customize the resources shown, including adding their own videos, content, and branding.

Sharon:So if an advisor already has educational videos or content, they can plug that in?

Brock:Yes, exactly. Advisors can add their own videos and resources by category, so when a user clicks into a topic like insurance or debt, they’ll see the advisor’s content.

Sharon:That’s great. What about next steps for the user?

Brock:That’s where the action item center comes in. After reviewing their report card, users see personalized action steps designed to help them improve their financial health.

These might include increasing savings, creating an emergency fund, building a will, or completing education modules. The advisor can customize or remove action items and add their own resources.

The idea is to put the advisor and the client on the same side of the table, working toward goals together rather than feeling like a sales conversation.

Sharon:Can you show an example of the educational content?

Brock:Sure. Each topic includes literacy courses made up of videos, polls, short readings, and quizzes. The content is interactive and often personalized based on the user’s information. Advisors can also replace or supplement this with their own educational material.

Sharon:Can advisors see how engaged users are?

Brock:Yes. On the advisor side, there’s reporting that shows engagement levels, activity, and aggregate insights into where users are struggling or improving.

Sharon:What about the financial plan itself?

Brock:The financial plan provides a visual overview of net worth, savings rate, insurance coverage, estate planning, and retirement projections.

For example, if someone’s savings rate isn’t high enough to meet their retirement goal, the platform shows them realistic steps to improve it over time rather than overwhelming them with unrealistic targets.

Sharon:I can really see how this helps people who don’t currently work with an advisor.

Brock:Exactly. It’s built to help advisors deliver value at scale, especially for people who aren’t ready for full-service planning yet.

Sharon:How do advisors typically charge for this when offering it as a wellness benefit?

Brock:Some offer it as a value-add at no cost. Others charge a per-employee monthly fee, usually anywhere from $2 to $15 depending on involvement.

Savology is priced per advisor license, not per user, so advisors can offer it to thousands of people for the same cost.

Sharon:Is the data manually entered, or does it integrate with accounts?

Brock:Initially, users manually enter information. They can then link accounts to automatically update balances. Advisors can view that data and reporting on the backend.

Sharon:Are there branding options for advisors?

Brock:Yes. Advisors can add their logo, customize resources, include their bio, contact info, calendar link, and make the platform feel like an extension of their firm.

Sharon:What questions do advisors usually ask before deciding to use it?

Brock:It really comes down to their needs. Advisors looking to differentiate their 401k offering, support younger or middle-market clients, or generate leads tend to see the most value.

There’s also a starter plan option that can be used as a lead magnet with built-in calls to action.

Sharon:How does it integrate with other software?

Brock:We integrate through Zapier, which allows data to flow into most CRMs and other platforms advisors already use.

Sharon:What about compliance?

Brock:We have a compliance portal with vendor reviews, policies, and documentation. The platform is educational, doesn’t provide advice, and avoids collecting sensitive personal information, which makes compliance approval straightforward.

Sharon:Is there anything else you want to show or mention before we wrap up?

Brock:I think we covered the main points. I’m happy to answer questions or connect with advisors who want to learn more.

Sharon:Perfect. I’ll connect interested advisors directly with you. Brock, thank you so much for taking the time to walk through this. It’s a great tool and one I think many advisors should take a closer look at.

Brock:Thanks again, Sharon. I really appreciate the opportunity.

—————- end of transcript ——————

Mentioned in this episode:

Savology Financial Wellness Platform – learn more at savology.com
To learn more, contact: Brock Klemetson
Calendar link: https://calendly.com/bklemetson-savology

Listen to the Podcast episode of this topic here.